For those of you who don’t know what this is, I, Steven, created a podcast in October of 2013 with my best friend Matt to talk about games. It’s now grown to include my friends who don’t play games much so instead we just talk about dumb stuff happening in our life for shits and giggles. We also do a side podcast (like this one!) where we do talk about games, though no good name has been created yet, suggest some in the comments!

This week Steven (who is typing this out) is joined by Trevor (good friend who plays guitar) to help run you through the important news of PAX, and Sony's Pre-TGS Conference, of which there was a lot. Stuff such as the New New 3DS which drives Trevor crazy with it's naming, our Persona 5 predictions, and various release dates. Then we discuss Steven playing Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition as well as Gears of War: Judgement, answer a message from our Tumblr, talk about recent "movements" on twitter and some old, but still funny, E3 predictions tweets.

For those of you who don’t know what this is, I, Steven, created a podcast in October of 2013 with my best friend Matt to talk about games. It’s now grown to include my friends who don’t play games much so instead we just talk about dumb stuff happening in our life for shits and giggles. We also do a side podcast where we do talk about games, though no good name has been created yet, suggest some in the comments!

This week Steven (who is typing this out) is joined by Trevor (good friend who plays guitar), Elise (coffee shop girl and free spirit) and Monica (graphic artist) to talk about what constitutes a girl dropping a hint that she likes you, Trevor really doesn’t like Mark Driscoll, we learn about the femitheist, Steven had a stereotypical twitter argument, he also brings in something for show and tell, we discuss fighting crime, ask our listeners to please write in, ask animal questions and as always talk about sex and dicks.

This week is probably the best episode we have done as we talk about jumping on a new bed, explain the origin of a rumjob, Steven's 21st birthday party and other drinking stories, Trevor's recent funtime trip to Arizona, Steven is a child, Dashcon, dispute Boulder City's relative location, Uncharted being turned into a movie by a crappy comedy director, Trevor is Ryan Scott, nobody knows who that is, Mario has a british accent now, we're offensive and attempt to end the podcast with a story.

Every time you start up a new game in Don’t Starve you’ll be greeted with a brand new randomized world and nearly nothing on your person to help you survive. You’ll quickly learn the basics that twigs and flint lead to axes and picks which in turn lead to better items used to craft better items. It’s a progressive structure and the time it takes to advance up the tech tree is determined by your knowledge of the various biomes and the luck of the draw. Don’t Starve is another crafting/survival game with the likes of Minecraft but relies more on the survival aspect than the crafting aspect. You won’t find insane human players with rocks like Rust and also won’t be able to construct replica Star Trek ships like in Minecraft. Instead you have a very charming dark game that tries to kill you more so than in other survival games.

The first thing you will learn as you wander the land is that fire is your best friend. Without it you will not survive nighttime as strange creatures will tear you apart. The starting area is pretty generous with items (on the default difficulty) and as you explore beyond the standard green forests and yellow fields you will encounter subversive items. Flowers that diminish your sanity despite previously restoring it, and meat from enemies will restore your hunger but take away health. Chopping wood and finding dark colored rocks is the key to success as they form the basis of refined items which lead to high tech crafting of walls and floors and machines that open up new formulas. At first you’ll only have temporary campfires amidst the bushes and trees but soon have a fully walled off home with a lightning rod and weather predictor.

Like everything aspect of Don’t Starve’s gameplay, you have to experiment and take risks if you are going to learn anything new. And it was during bold moments where I wandered beyond my comfort zone that I died most often. Exploring a cave without a source of fire, taking on a pack of dogs outside my house, these moments came when I thought I could take a risk, and instead ended in death. Thankfully death isn’t quite the end, since interacting with special altars cause them to become respawn points. However if you do die with no altar active, you lose everything and are kicked back to the main menu. Don’t Starve does give XP points depending on the quality of your survival which unlocks new characters complete with perks and disadvantages of their own.

The game is full of dark humor and the overall art style is very Burton-esque, with gothic overtones and a late 1800’s dank vibe. The character’s hair is not fully colored in and everything is shown on a 2D plane, which can disorient when you start shifting the perspectives. All voicework is done in grating whiny tones that sound like a dying record player spouting out a single high note that reverberates. My favorite (and best) character is a little girl named Willow who spawns equipped with a lucky lighter and is obsessed with fire. Everything she interacts with will cause her to spout out lines that just go along the line of thinking: “Can I light this on fire?” She’s also immune to fire damage and her sanity increases when she’s around fire; those features have made me light more than a few forests on fire simply for the pleasure of seeing everything burn while she stands in the middle of it still looking unimpressed. One of my favorite features is a tree enemy who appears when you’ve chopped down a bunch of trees. He will follow you around until you plant a bunch of pine cones to create new trees and then goes back to tree form, waiting until you screw up the natural balance of nature again. Another creature I enjoy harassing are these pig humans(?) that live in small houses either alone or in villages. They display some intelligence since they have houses and will freak out whenever you approach one, running and screaming.

Despite my love for the game, I haven’t gotten very far. One save file is about to reach thirty days of survival but winter is coming and I’m ill equipped to survive the oncoming cold. Every time I start a new game, however, I feel more confident in my ability to predict what threat may come upon me, and I slowly get faster at gathering the necessary materials to survive longer. The game taps into that feeling of, “just one more” that I originally satisfied with Nazi Zombies in high school. Despite the lack of nazi zombies, as far as I know, I still enjoy the feeling of imminent doom. I know I’m going to die eventually, and enjoy that thrill. It can be frustrating when you die because some spiders ambushed you or horned frogs surrounded you as you were gathering berries, which makes me play Don’t Starve more in sporadic bursts than late night marathons.

I really like what Don’t Starve does. It gives me a big map I have barely explored every time with the tools to master the world. Every game I make it a little farther in, and learn a little more. The urge to consult a wiki in order to master everything is strong, but the satisfaction of learning the mechanics and intrigues on my own are stronger. There is a lot I have yet to see. Wormholes are rarely used due to their unknown destination and cost of sanity. I’ve rarely explored caves since I never feel protected enough and have never traveled very far from my main base. My main goal currently is to build a house of sorts and have a functional farm as a source of food. Each day has it’s own goal of gathering a specific resource, but at the same time you’re working you need to keep threats of raids in the back of your mind and also an eye on the hunger meter.

Don’t Starve is simply great. I really enjoy playing it in bursts and interacting with the crazy little world they’ve created with it’s strange twists on animals and dark overtones. Anyone who enjoys the survival genre that’s recently become very popular should try it out, and a new DLC pack is on it’s way for PS4 owners that brings in some new features, making now the best time to start burning down forests as Willow.

Surprisingly there’s actually a lot of games coming out this month, however only two of them are actually interesting. The same can be said for movies as this month will be dominated by Transformers 4 while the Tumblr crowd chases after The Fault in Our Stars. Enough talk, games.

Murdered: Soul Suspect -PS3/4/X1/360/PC -June 3

A strange mix between ghosts and L.A. Noire, you play as the ghost of detective Ronan O’Conner as he tries to solve his murder and other mysteries in Salem. This is really the only big game release in June thanks to Elder Scrolls Online being pushed back to Christmas for consoles. Because of that I am declaring June the official backlog month of the year. Good luck catching up on your piles of shame.

War Thunder -PS4 -June 3

Sorta like world of tanks since it’s an MMO coming to consoles and features WWII planes.

WildStar -PC -June 3

A new MMO for your PC.

Ultra Street Fighter IV -PS3/360/PC -June 3

Cash in

1001 Spikes -Everything -June 3

This game is marketed as a “return to the golden years of video games” so basically supposed to appeal to all those older people who were born at the “right” time of the NES and what not. Which is frankly bullshit, I’m tired of 30-somelthing year olds talking about how younger generations of gamers just aren’t the same. Every generation says that about the up and coming one and it’s always bullshit. Sorry side rant.

PlayStation Vita Pets -Vita -June 3

Nintendogs Sony Edition

Worms Battlegrounds -PS4/Xbox One -June 3

I watched the trailer for this game and have no idea what it is. It’s some sort of competitive game where you play as worms and dig through the world by causing explosions which also serve as your main method of movement?

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection -Vita -June 3

This is the somewhat popular series that turned consoles into actual girls who are now battling a new threat to the world of Gamindustri by training them to sing dance and become idols for the citizens. This is a Japanese game through and through.

Tango Fiesta -PC/Mac -June 4

A play off of 80’s action movies, it’s a four player coop shootem up with one liners and “endless fun”

Tomodachi Life -3DS -June 6

This is just… hard to explain. It’s a life simulator, where you use your Mii’s to act out whacky adventures. I mean really, you have to watch the trailer, it’s so good. It also of course had some controversy when Nintendo refused to comment on why same sex relationships were not available in the game, which prompted the internet to respond with gifs of famous Nintendo characters making out.

Enemy Front -PS3/360/PC -June 10

After being spoiled by Wolfenstein The New Order and it’s great gameplay and surprisingly emotional story, I don’t know if another WWII era shooter can live up to that standard. However it does look surprisingly good and I do miss the classic WWII battles. The maps are a bit more open than Wolfenstein’s, so I might actually try this out.

Pulstar -PC/Mac -June 11

A neon-centric aracade shooter that looks like a cross between Super Stardust and Geometry Wars. Also they have not confirmed whether or not this is a sequel to the NeoGeo title of the same name.

Battle Princess of Arcadias -PS3 -June 17

Generic JRPG #714

EA Sports UFC -PS4/Xbox One -June 17

Have you seen X-Men Days of Future Past? It was a really enjoyable film. I don’t know yet if I can qualify it as great though cause there were some timeline issues. Mainly it took place the same time Wolverine was with the Weapon X program and Stryker was young and didn’t recognize him, though they foreshadowed the adamantium claws. Then in the end, SPOILERS, Stryker gets Wolverine but it’s revealed to be Mystique. Strange. Also Toad appears as a army draftee, but he’s in the first X-men movie as like a teen almost. So either he can’t age or had a kid I guess? Who would want to mate with that dude is beyond me. Also somehow the serum that helps Xavier walk ALSO reperesses his powers. How convenient of a plot device. Anyway, fun film, you should watch it if you like X-Men.

Pushmo World -Wii U -June 19

Bigger Pushmo, more puzzles. Yay.

Divinity: Original Sin -PC/Mac -June 20

An Isometric action RPG featuring generic story and setting.

Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies -PC -June 24

Expansion to the sequel to perhaps the best RTS game ever made. This gets rid of the Russian army in favor of the US Forces seen in the original CoH. Despite being absolutely terrible at this game I still love to mess around with AI enemies in the original’s multiplayer.

Grid Autosport -PS3/360/PC -June 24

Speaking of World War II, the recent movie Godzilla had an opening sequence showing that post WWII nuclear tests were merely attempts to kill the legendary monster. However the film was pretty bad when it came to plot. For one the military decides to arm a nuclear weapon in the middle of the SF bay instead of transporting it outside where they planned to detonate it to distract the monsters. Bryan Cranston is killed off not even halfway through and Godzilla himself is more o fa guest star than anything. The movie wastes so much time on a dog, a little girl, a small Asian boy who Brody, the main character saves and then conveniently finds his parents in the aftermath of Honolulu’s destruction. Then his experience disabling dirty bombs in Iraq somehow translate to being able to disarm a nuclear warhead. How? We don’t know. There’s also Serizowa who just stands around confused at everything that’s happening. The movies only saving grace is that final killshot and the HALO jump sequence which was spoiled in the trailer so even then it didn’t really help the overall movie. What garbage. 5.0.

XBlaze Code: Embryo -PS3/Vita -June 24

You know the best feature in any fighting game is its story, so why not strip away everything else and have a story based visual novel that involves the BlazBlue characters? I mean, who needs fighting game mechanics in a spin off of a fighting game? Anyone?

Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland -PS3/Vita -June 24

Generic JRPG #423

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark -Everything -June 24

NOT being developed by High Moon Studios who crafted an excellent Transformers third person shooter, this is your movie tie in to a movie we all know is going to be dead inside.

Farming Simulator 2014 -3DS/PC/Vita -June 24

I doubt this game features the anthrax-centric insurance fraud plot of the Elementary episode “No Lack of Void”.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare -PC -June 24

Guess what, this game is also coming to PS4 this August, because MONEY

Valiant Hearts: The Great War -PC/360/PS3/X1 -June 25

A nice looking adventure story covering different characters during the first world war. Previews on gameplay haven’t been promising but the potential to tell a great character driven WWI story is hard to pass up on.

Sniper Elite III -PC/X1/PS3/360/PS4 -June 27

I’m a bit confused cause images for this game show a somewhat darker skinned dude, and the game takes place in North Africa so I thought maybe it would be a nice change from the military gruff bro white dude we see in every single game. However the logo image clearly has a pale skinned dude and the game description has him as an OSS British dude, crushing my hope that maybe there was a non white guy as a protagonist.